Pipe and tube cleaner.



' J. W. BELL.

PIPE AND TUBE CLEANER.

APPLICATION FILED 001' 12. 1914 m x m 6 I U W////// 8 ll l 7. m I 3 3 A. 2 1

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u TED STATES PATENT ornion.

JOHN WARREN BELL, 0F BELLINGHAM, WASHINGTON, ASSIGNOR 0F ONE-HALE 'IO JAMES A. LOGGIE, 0F BELLINGHAM, WASHINGTON.

PIPE AND TUBE CLEANER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 30, 1915.

Application filed October 12, 1914. Serial No. 866,229.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, J OHN WVARREN BELn, a citizen of Canada, and a subject of II1s Royal Highness George V of Great Britain, and a resident of 2006 I street, Belllngham, in the county of l/Vhatcom and State of Washington, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Pipe and Tube Cleaners, of which the following is a specification. 7

My invention relates to improvements in pipe and tube cleaners in which a revolving body or bodies are used to break up and dislodge the scale or other solid accumulations in boiler tubes and other pipes; and the objects of my improvement are to provide a cleaner which can be used in both straight and curved tubes, which will act positively to break up the solid accumulations of scale therein and which will not injure the tubes when doing the work.

I attain these objects by the mechanism illustrated in the accompanying drawing, in

which- Figure 1 is a side elevation of my tube cleaner and Fig. 2 is an'end elevation of 1 is a cutter head adapted for revolution by the flexible shaft 2. This head consists of a hollow truncated cone with its larger end closed and tapered to engage with a screw on the end of flexible shaft 2. The shell of head 1 is pierced by holes, of rectangular cross section. These holes are in pairs, and a center line through each pair of holes intersects the longitudinal center line of the head and is also an element in the surface of a helix in which the center lines of each of the other pairs of holes alsolie. As illustrated, the head contains six pairs of said holes, and in each pair is placed one of the six cutters 3-8. Each cutter is double bitted that is has both ends sharpened. Cutters 36 are diamond pointed while the bits of cutters 7 and 8 are rounded. Cutter lengths of cutters 3 and 8. The cutters are free to move endwise back and forth in said holes to a limited amount, as 3 to positions indicated in dotted outline at 3 and 3", said movement of each cutter being restricted by stop pins 3 4*, etc., which are rigidly inserted in holes in said cutters and further serve to prevent the cutters from leaving the head. The length of longest cutter 8 is somewhat less than the diameter of the flues to be cleaned.

In using my cutter it is introduced in the upper end of the tube and caused to revolve. The cutting tools adapt themselves to the varying diameter due to the presence of scale and rout out the same, meanwhile the tapering form in which the revolving bits move together with the helical arrangement of the same induces forward progress of the cutter down a boiler tube. Also since there is no considerable pressure which can operate to hold the cutting bits in close contact with the tube, and also since the cutting bits on the longest cutters are rounded, when the scale has been removed down to the smooth tube surface these bits cannot cut into said tube surface to an injurious extent.

Although I prefer to use the tapering form of cutter head as shown, I have done satisfactory work with a cylindrical form of head.

My invention resides in the cutter head with cutters suitable for revolution within the tube and does not concern itself with the particular power means used to revolve the same. 7

I have done effective and rapid work in completely removing hard and thick scale from within tubes with such a cutter as described coupled to a pipe and revolved by hand. And, although I have illustrated my new tube cleaner head attached to a flexible shaft adapted for revolution by any convenient means, it is also suited for attachment to a water motor or any other source of power which may conveniently serve to produce the necessary rotation in the surroundings and under the conditions where the cleaner must work.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim to be new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is In a machine of the character described the combination with a rotatable cutter head Signed at Bellingham in the county of 7 having radial slideways through its body, Whatcom and State ofWashington this 3rd of normally freely reciprocating double-bit day of October A. D. 1914.

ted cutters in said slideways having their JOHN WARREN BELL bits simultaneously protruding beyond said Witnesses:

head, and means to limit the endwise move- R. S. SIMPSON,

ment of said cutters in said slideways. JOHN L. THOMAS.

Copies of this patent may be ohtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents Washington, D. 0. 

